Sadly our arrival into Hanoi, via the overnight train from Hue, had a familiar ring to it and once again it was the taxi drivers who gave the city a disappointing first impression. We have learnt from bitter experience to always take a cab that has a meter rather than to negotiate a price up front, as the latter method will always have you paying the foreigner price, up to 10 times what the meter will read. Having been careful to select a taxi that promised to have a meter running, the attitude of the taxi driver and his friend (posing as a translator) changed dramatically once our luggage was locked in the boot and we were in the taxi - no more meter only an extortionate price. Despite our protestations and Carol having to forcibly prevent the friend from getting into the back of the cab beside her (remember Cambodia and the potential for a heist!) we collected our luggage and went in search of a more honest cabbie, though not without being followed and several choice words being exchanged at high volume. We drove through Hanoi centre, en route to our hotel, at a very early hour in the morning and were pleasantly surprised at the number of lakes, parks and open spaces in this modern sprawling metropolis. The young and old alike were already up and at 'em, carrying out their morning exercises as the sun rose of the water - something of a custom for the Vietnamese people. The main lake in the centre of the city plays a key part in a revered legend. In the 15th century heaven gave a magical sword to Emperor Ly Thai To, which he used to drive the Chinese from Vietnam. After the war was over he was out boating on the lake when he came across a giant golden tortoise on the surface of the water; the tortoise grabbed the sword from his hand and disappeared into the murky waters. The lake is now called Ho Hoan Kiem (Lake of the restored sword) and it is believed that the giant tortoises still inhabit the water, though they have seldom been seen by locals or visitors to the city. Part of the experience of being in Hanoi is to soak up the chaotic atmosphere of the Old Quarter of the city, which conveniently is where we chose a hotel. This area has been the commercial centre of Hanoi for several centuries and is no different today. In the 13th century Hanoi's 36 guilds established themselves here, each taking a different street, this giving rise to the original name for the area "the 36 streets". As a result each street is named after the predominant business there and walking around you find Sugar Street, Silk Street, Rice Street, Hat Street, Coffin Street and Blacksmith Street, amongst many others. Of course today many of these arrangements have changed and the business's of 7 centuries ago no longer exist. However, we did come across Blacksmith Street with its array of foundries all churning out intricate iron works and Counterfiet Street was a sight to behold with its arrays of counterfiet Vietnamese Dong and US Dollars (including $5000 notes) which are produced to be burnt as offerings in various Buddhist ceremonies. One of the main reasons that many Vietnamese visit Hanoi is to visit Ho Chi Minh at his Mausoleum in the city, where his embalmed body is on display in a great glass sarcophagus. Despite his request to be cremated after his death, such is the fascination amongst the Vietnamese people for 'Uncle Ho' as he is affectionatley known, that his body was interned in 1975, six years after his death. We queued with thousands of others for a short glimpse of the "great man" though in doing so got some good first hand experience of the Authorities desire for control and order. Chris dared to step out of line in order to take some video and was quickly ushered back into line by a white clad guard, who persistently waved his hand in front of the camera - and this was 500m outside the entrance to the mausoleum!. Not to be outdone one of the guards inside the entrance got very upset when Chris stepped off the red vinyl matting that led you into the inner chamber (and we mean he had one foot on the mat and one foot on the marble step). The guard grabbed Chris by the arm and pulled him back on the mat. You can already feel the temperature rising can't you !! But we are not finished yet, when inside the inner chamber we were constantly pulled along by the arm from one guard to another - this treatment was only doled out to foreigners as the same treatment was certainly not meated out to the locals. A diplomatic incident was in the making with the headline "Brit punches Ho Chi Minh guard" !! We have to say that image of Uncle Ho resting peacefully in his glass coffin, bathed in a vivid orange light that gave him a very unnatural pallour, is a very strange sight. It was reminiscent of some freakish late night horror show and both of us were waiting for him to sit bolt upright to scare the living daylights out of us. What is it about communist dictators that they like to be pickled? Uncle Ho is in good company along with Stalin and Lenin as they are also embalmed. In fact we learned that 'Uncle Ho' has to be sent to Russia for three months each year for 'maintenance'. The rest of the complex was given over to his living arrangements whilst he was in power between 1958 and 1969. Well, all we can say is so much for the communist philosophy of the equality of man. Uncle Ho had his own Presidential Palace and Boating Lake which looked nothing like the shanty town housing that still exists for those outside the city 36 years after his death! In fact most of the huge site more resembles Disney World, with glorious revolutionary music playing on the loudspeaker system. We did laugh at the irony of it all though when we stopped for a drink in the grounds and the cafe had huge 'Pepsi' advertising all over the place. So these have been the highlights that the capital city has had to offer us and we have quite enjoyed it here, despite the extreme humidity that seems to go hand in hand with built up areas. We have therefore decided to head north-west to the mountain area of Sa Pa, which is close to the border with China and much cooler - we hope!